The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1887-11-18

oeptns OF study where they ought not TO 60,
and their intellecta have been overburdened
and overstreined and battered to pieces
against Latin gramnars and algebras, and
coming forth into practical life they win
hardly rise 70 mediocrity, and there Is now
stuffing and examining system Of education
IN the schools Of our country that Is dreadful
TO the teachers who have to enforce itand de-
structive TO the children who must submit to
the process. You find children at and 10
years Of age with school lessons only appro-
pirate for children of IS. II children are
kept In school and studying from Q to 8
O'Clock, no home study except nsic:.ougbt TO
DO required Of them Six hours Of study is
enough for any child The rest Of the day
ought to be devoted to recreation and pure
fun. But you cannot begin too early the
moral culture of child or on too complete
scale. You can look back upon your own life
and remember what mighty impressions were
made upon you at or o years of age Oh, that
child does not sit 50 silent during your con-
yersation 10 be uninhuenced by IT, You say
he does not understand. Although much OF
your phraseology Is beyond his grasp, be Is
gathering up from your talk influences which
win affect his immortal destiny. From the
question he asks you long afterward you find
he understood all about what you were say
ing. You think the child does not appreciate
that beautiful cloud, but its most delicate
lines are reflected into the very depths Of the
youthful nature, and score of yeaa from
now you will see the shadow of that cloud In
the tastes and refnements developed The
song with which you sing that child to sleep
will echo through all its life, and ring back
from the very arches of heaven. think that
often the first seven years of child's life de
cides whether it shall be irascible, waspish,
rude, false, hypocritical, or gentle, truthful,
frank, obedient, honest and Christian. The
present generations of men will pass of very
much as they are now. Although the
gospel Is offered them, the general rule is
that drunkards die drunkards, thieves die
theses, hbertines die hbertines Therefore,
to the youth we turn. Before they sow wild
oats get them to SOW wheat and barley. You
fill the bushel measure with good corn, and
there'will be no room for husks. Glorious
Alfred Goodman was converted at 10 years
of age. At Carlisle, Pa, during the progress
of a religious meeting in the Methodist
church, while many were kneeling at the foot
of the altar, this boy knelt in corner Of the
church all by himself, and said: Precious
Savior, thou art saving others; o wilt thou
beside him and led him into the light En-
throned Alfred CookmanI Tell me from the
skies, were you converted too early7 But
cannot hear his answer. 1t is overpowered
by the huzzas of the tens Of thousands who
were brought to God through his ministry.
Isaac Watts, the great Christian poet, was
converted at years Of age Robert Hall,
the great Baptist evangelist, was converted
at IL years of age. Jonathan Edwards, the
greatest of American logicians, was convert
ed at years of age.
Oh, for one generation of holy men and
womenl Shall it be the Dext2 Fathers and
mothers, you under God are to decide whetb
er from your families shall go forth towards
inebriates, counterfeiters, blasphemers, and
whether there shall be those bearing your
image and carrying your name fostering in
the low haunts of vice, and laundering in
dissipation, and making the midnight Of
their lives horrid with long howl Of ruin,
or whether from your family affairs shall
come the Christians, the reformers, the
teachers, the ministers of Christ, the com.
forters of the troubled, the healers of the
sick, the enacters of good laws, the founders
Of charitable institutions, and great many
who shall in the humber spheres of toll and
usefulness serve God and the best interests of
the human race.
You cannot as parents shirk the response
bility. God has charged you with a mission,
and all the thrones of heaven are waiting to
see whether you will do your duty. We
must not forget that it is not so much what
we teach our children as what we are in their
presence. We wish them to be better than
we are, but the probability is that they will
be only reproductions Of our own character
German literature has much to say of the
'specter Of Broken" Among those noun
tains travellers, in certain conditions of the
atmosphere, see themselves copied on a gi-
gantic scale in the clouds At first the travel
ers do not realize that it Is themselves on a
larger scale. When they lift hand or move
the head this monster specter does the
same, and with such enlargement of
proportions that the scene is most
exciting, and thousands have gone to
that place Just to behold the specter
of Broken. The probability is that some of
our faults which we consider small and in
significant, If we do not put an end to them,
will be copied on larger scale in the lives of
our children, and perhaps dilated and exag-
gerated into spectral proportions. You need
not go OFF as far as the Broken to see that
process. The first thing in Importance in the
education of our children is to make our
selves, by the grace Of God, fit examples to
be copied. The day will come when YOU
must confront that child, not in the church
pew on calm Sabbath, but amid the con-
sternation of the rising dead, and the flying
heavens, and burning world From your
side that son or daughter, bone Of your bone,
heart of your heart, the fathers brow his
brow, the mothers eye his eye, shall go forth
to an eternal destiny. What will be your
Joy if at last you hear their feet in
the same golden highway and hear
their voices In the same rapturous song, illus
trations, while the eternal ages last, of what
faithful parent could, under God, accom-
plish. was reading Of a mother who, dying,
had all her children about her, and took each
one Of them by the hand and asked them to
meet her in heaven, and with tears and sobs
such as those only know who have stood by
the deathbed Of a good old mother. They all
promised But there was young man of 10
who had been very wild, and reckless, and
hard, and proud, and when she took his hand
she said: "Now, my boy, want you to
promise me before die that you will become
Christian and meet me In heaven" The
young man made no answer, for there was
SO much for him to give up if he made and
kept such promise. But the aged mother
persisted in saying:
"You won't deny me that before go, viii
youa This parting must not be forever. Tell
me now you win serve God and meet me in
the land where there is no parting" Quak-
ing with emotion he stood, making up his
mind and halting and hesitating, but at last
his stubbornneSs yielded and he threw his
arms around his mothers neck and said:
eyes, moth viii, will" And as he fin
ished the Lar word of his promise her spirit
assembled. lhank God the young man kept
his promise Yes, he kept it, May God give
all mothers Md fathers the gladness of their
children's salvation.
For all who are trying to do their duty as
parents / quote the tremendous passage:
'"Train up child in the way in which he
should go, and when he is old he will not de-
part from it" If through good discipline
and prayer and godly example you are acting
upon that child you have the right to expect
him to grow up virtuous And how many
tears of joy you win shed when you see your
child honorable and just and truthful and
Christian and successful-a holy man amid a
world of dishonesty, a godly woman in
world of frivolous pretensjon. When you
come to die they viii gather to bless your last
hours, They win push back the white locks
on your cold forehead and say: .What q
good father he always was to mel" They
viii fold your hands peacefully and say,
"Dear motherl She Is gone. Her troubles
are all over. Don't she look beautifulrn
Saved His Life.
Mr.. D, l. WIlcoxson, of Horse Cave,